Awards highlight benefits of working with Irish Research Performing Organisations as number of companies engaging with the research base increase
Waterford Institute of Technology and UCD swept the boards at the annual Knowledge Transfer Ireland Impact Awards presented by Damien English, T.D., Minister for Skills, Research & Innovation in Dublin on Wednesday 23rd March, 2015.
UCD and its technology transfer office, NovaUCD, took both the Licence2Market Impact Award and the Spin-out Company Impact Award for the UCD spin-out OxyMem.
Waterford Institute of Technology also scooped 2 awards; the Research2Business Collaborative Impact Award was presented to Dr. Felicity Kelliher and Dr. Ramesh Raghavendra won the Consultancy Impact Award.
Congratulating the winners Minister English said “the KTI Impact Awards celebrate the significant impact of commercially valuable knowledge transferred from the research system into Irish industry. It is important to recognise the successful impact achieved by industry in Ireland through the acquisition of new technologies and intellectual property or by getting expert advice from State-funded researchers and the Universities, Institutes of Technology and research institutes where they work”.
Dr. Alison Campbell, Director of KTI congratulated Professor Orla Feely, UCD Vice President for Research, Innovation and Impact and Professor Willie Donnelly, Vice President for Research and Innovation at Waterford Institute of Technology who also received awards on behalf of UCD and WIT in recognition of their support and promotion of knowledge transfer at the winning researchers’ host institutions.
According to Dr. Campbell, “KTI’s aim is to support the economic and social return from State investment in research by encouraging companies to engage with the research base in Ireland to help them innovate. KTI is playing an important part by making the knowledge, expertise and IP available within our research performing organisations more visible to companies so that they may use research and innovation to drive competitive advantage and sustainable job creation”.
KTI was launched in May 2014 and is operated in partnership between Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Universities Association. KTI’s web portal (www.knowledgetransferireland.com) provides companies with easy access to the resources available to them from State-funded research – from expertise to technologies, from intellectual property to facilities and equipment.
For more information on this press release contact;
Grace Labanyi
Enterprise Ireland
Tel: +353 87 3286404 or +353 1 7272746
